RoboAg - I know where Locus swam. She swam in Austin before her family moved to Houston.

Quinn may not be the fastest 14 year old, but she won Jrs SCY. I don't care that who is #1 or #2. I care that she is in Texas and swam as fast as any Aggie so far this year.

I also know about Bultman's coaching skills. You may not know but there are a few here that have been watching and talking about A&M swimming for a number of years.

I relish the thought of Bultman taking athletes like Sarah Henry to the highest levels. To win a NC or finish top 3 at NCAAs we need to get a few more high school elites to come to A&M.

Spicewood: I am relatively new to this board compared to others. I'm usually on the football board, but found this one. My daughter swims year around so I started taking a real interest in Aggie swimming. I worked with a parent of a former Aggie swimmer, and know a current swimmer as well.

I have seen Carrozza swim lots of times at the TXLA meets and she would be a great get for us.

I agree that we need to get more elite swimmers. My observation (I could be wrong) is that tu gets the elite swimmers but they haven't improved. Bultman doesn't get the elite swimmers but has made them better than the elite swimmers tu recruited.

Roboag - swimming is a great sport. I hope your daughter enjoys it.

I think with tu you have two different teams - the mens team and the womens team. Eddie Reese's reputation is well earned. He is an excellent coach, if a bit old school compared to some like Gary Salo (USC). He has turned dozens of elite swimmers into even better swimmers (Hansen, Peirsol, Crocker, Berens, Walters, Spann, Walker etc. are just a few). Look at Dax Hill right now - he was a 45 100 free swimmer in high school and he just recently swam 42 high. Outstanding development.

Brackins is another story. Her teams have failed badly at end of season when it counts. Sogar is having a great year, but some of her other blue chips seem to be just ordinary fast. We'll see this season how Brackins team does.

Grammar smack on a message board??? Is just as weak as Coach K's coaching ability. As well as bigfoots attempts to hook up with Aggie male tennis players.

" As well as bigfoots attempts to hook up with Aggie male tennis players."

What?

that makes perfectly good sense

Good points Spicewood. Kathleen Hersey was all everything coming into tu (even after the olympics). Then she and her teammates were beaten by us in the Big 12 Champs by swimmers that weren't even close to the notoriety!

Spicewood: I remember Dax Hill when he was at LoneStar. Remember talking to his Mom & she said that he was also a good basketball player. I have to admit though, I'm glad he's at a place where he can develop into a world class swimmer. Wouldn't surprise me if he's in the finals at the olympic trials for the 50 & 100 Free.

Spicewood: swimming is a great sport. There's a lot of aspects that my daughter enjoys, like the friends she's made on her team and the success that she has enjoyed (at times) as well as helping her team in some of the championship meets.

I don't think Dax is ready for Olympic Trials finals in 2012...2016 is definite, but not 2012. Have to remember that in addition to the usual suspects, by 2012 Morozov could be American, and Lochte or Phelps could be shooting for the 100 free too. Plus, sprinters tend to really hit their primes at a little bit of an older age.

Haven't read much about this and if this has been talked about my bad but I don't understand how tu women are still getting great recruits. If you are a recruit and you take a trip and see Hersey there but training with the guys. I would have to wonder if that was the best place for me to go if an elite swimmer like Hersey doesn't even want to swim for Kim

I too don't understand how Brackin is so successful at recruiting. For a while I assumed she was leveraging her past success at Auburn and her success coaching Kirsty Coventry.

But I think the average 17-18 year old will find UT-Austin more appealing the A&M-College Station.

As for Dax Hill - he may not make the 2012 team in individual events, but he is showing that he could be in the hunt for a relay spot. He is a good LCM swimmer. His rate of improvement at tu so far has been very impressive. I would not be shocked if he beats Feigen eventually. Dax has 6'7 to work with and an unbelievable competitive attitude. Both Dax and Kerrington have been racing their guts out since they were young.

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Dax has 6'7 to work with and an unbelievable competitive attitude. Both Dax and Kerrington have been racing their guts out since they were young.

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True that about racing their guts out. With that attitude, Dax's frame & Reese's coaching, I definitely expect him to go places!

favre, that was the big drama with Hersey. She wasn't removed from the Texas roster until about 2 weeks after signing day, and they never made an official announcement so that recruits wouldn't question it.

Spice, I think Dax is on another level than his brother.

Didn't know that, that seems a little shady. Would think there is a rule against that sort of thing, but I guess that would make to much sense

Oughta be, but not sure how you'd legislate it. If we started holding people responsible for what's on their website rosters, that would open a whole new can of worms. So long as she hadn't done anything to defeat her amateurism, there's probably no rule against it. Now, if they left her on the roster after she was a pro, I'm sure the NCAA would have something to say about that...

Brackin is definitely living off of her reputation with Coventry. Auburn assistants, thus far, haven't done so hot as head coaches (see Hawke, Brett).

Hard to predict what will happen with Hill. Just not that many examples of swimmers who begin taking swimming seriously at the age of 18 in one of the best swim programs in the world (he played other sports throughout high school).

His huge improvement is because his training level has increased more than most other swimmers coming to Texas. But, could this mean he's got a ton more improvement to go, or could it mean that he's going to plateau at some point? Who knows, though I assume his experience with weight training from his other dryland sports will help him continue to improve.

Also, from a mental standpoint, there's two schools of thought. I've seen plenty of swimmers who try to get serious at the college level, and they can't handle it. There's also plenty of examples of swimmers who start swimming full-time later in their careers, and thus don't have the same burnout issues.

But I tell you what, age group coaches around the country will be watching the Hill study very closely...it will kill a lot of their leverage if it turns out you can take a great athlete, let him do whatever he wants + swim part-time until he's 18, and then turn him into an Olympian by 22.

he has shown he can get serious at the college level, sub 50 and 1:50 this summer at nationals

AgBlastoff - although I have heard that the Hill kids played basketball, I don't think it was ever a real distraction from swimming. AFAIK, they never played high school ball.

Dax was always a little rough around the edges technique-wise, but he was an explosive swimmer with an I-dare-you-to-beat-me attitude. I'm not surprised that he is excelling under a top training program. He is also well liked by the kids who raced him.

Dax Hill was a two-time all-district in basketball at RR.

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His huge improvement is because his training level has increased more than most other swimmers coming to Texas. But, could this mean he's got a ton more improvement to go, or could it mean that he's going to plateau at some point?

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AgBlastoff: I have heard that Hill did not receive the "best coaching" on the club level. Therefore, given Reese's reputation, I am not surprise to hear about the increase in training level.

AgBlastoff: Just looked at tu's website & noticed that Hersey was not on the roster. Wow. I remember when she was the #1 recruit in America coming to tu fresh off the olympics & touted as the savior of their program to bring it back to national prominence. Wonder if they are going through a lot of drama like their football team!

Yep, pulled her off shortly after they secured another top 3 recruiting class. Has been training with Reese and the boys since NCAA's.

And to bring everything full circle, Check out this lovely tweet from Dax Hill back in September...

http://twitter.com/daxhill/status/24510726656

At the risk of prolonging the Dax Hill discussion...

Roboag - One of my high school's best swimmers (Yvonne Le - multi-4A state medalist) swam with Lone Star Aquatic club. She drove there from the Lake Travis area - which is pretty long haul when she could have swum for many other good clubs. I don't think LSAC was any worse or notably better than most. I personally believe the majority of USA-S coaches are mediocre and have no true knowledge of physiology or training principles. A lot of these coaches coach like they were coached 20 years ago, have never gone to an elite coaches clinic, nor read any credible references like Maglischo's Swimming Fastest.

I have never watched Dax train, just race. But one other factor is that he was probably the fastest kid in the pool at LSAC. Now he is swimming with Fiegen, Walters, Berens, etc. every day. He has someone to push him besides Kerrington.

AgBlastoff - I was obviously wrong about Dax and bball. Thanks.

Great comeback, as always Xl! Took you long enough to find this!

Merry Christmas!

Hey it only took 3 posts for me to be brought up on this thread...Love it.

You two sure look like you have a loving relationship!

I occupy about 50% of bigfoots dome...

Honest question does the Aggie Women's tennis team finish above third place this year?

Above third in what? Academics? NCAA's? Big 12's? Having the most fun?

You wish someone cared about you posting here.

Please start a new thread about womens tennis so that we can all read your idiotic posts without having to search for them.

No, seriously, start a new thread about it.

Spicewood: I guess that's saying a lot when they drove past Nitro to be a part of LoneStar.

Roboag - All I know is that Dax got better and better. His technique continued to improve. I'm not saying he had great coaching, but it must not have been terrible. Some kids will just stay with the coach they know.

I also heard there have been some changes in LSAC coaching - and I don't currently know anyone swimming there.